Copley Sq. Boston - Activists in Boston joined the Global Hunger Strike Relay today by having a public fasting event in Copley Square. From 10:30am-12:30pm, students and professionals affiliated with Amnesty International and Association for India's Development publicly fasted and asked Boston residents to call the Indian Prime Minister to ask for justice in Bhopal.

Activists in Boston have joined the Global Relay, which is being supported by hundreds of activists many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Argentina, France, Canada and India. Actions are being planned in cities across the US, from Boston to San Francisco.

Activists participating in the Global Relay are in solidarity with the nine activists, including supporters and survivors of the ongoing disasters in Bhopal, who began an indefinite fast Tuesday in Delhi. Author Indra Sinha, a 2007 Booker Prize finalist, has joined the indefinite fast from his home in France, Blue Planet Award winning author Diane Wilson is fasting indefinitely as well in Houston, TX. The brave yet perilous decision to begin an indefinite fast has been undertaken only after numerous unsuccessful attempts to focus the attention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh toward the grave situation in Bhopal.

"We extend unwavering support to the survivors who are bravely standing up to the oppressive force of India's government," Aquene Freechild, an Cambridge based organizer with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said "These global actions display tremendous unity toward the common end of justice in Bhopal."

Survivors are demanding the establishment of a special commission to deal with the issues that still sicken and impoverish the people of Bhopal. They are also demanding that the Prime Minister hold Dow Chemical legally liable, following Dow's purchase of the initial disaster offender, Union Carbide, in 2001. Though survivors have gained support from many influential lawmakers, as well as the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, the Prime Minister Singh has not budged from his ongoing support of this rogue chemical company.

Nearly half a million people were exposed to poisonous methyl isocyanate during a runaway chemical reaction at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on December 3rd, 1984. Since then, more than 22,000 people have died and 150,000 survivors continue to be chronically ill, as the Indian government and Dow have repeatedly failed to address their liabilites in the atrocities of the world's worst industrial disaster.